The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 60

DailyHerald Saturday, January 2000 WORLD NATION Section 3 THE NATION Ex-Attorney General Richardson dies at 79 BOSTON Lee Richardson, who resigned as attorney general in 1973 in a historic showdown with President Richard M. Nixon over the Watergate investigation, died Elliot Friday at 79. Richardson He died of a cerebral hemorrhage. In a wide-ranging career, Richardson served as secretary of defense under Nixon, ambassador to Great Britain and U.S. representative to the Law of the Sea Conference during the Gerald Ford administration.

He also ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts in 1984. Church group: Talks over boy fell through MIAMI A leading U.S. church organization said Friday it was to have been an intermediary in an agreement to return to Cuba a 6-year-old boy at the center of an international custody dispute. A spokeswoman for the U.S.

National Council of Churches said the deal to return the boy, Elian Gonzalez, feU apart for unexplained reasons in mid-December. But the council will send two representatives to Cuba Sunday to meet with Elian's father, grandparents and with U.S. and Cuban government officials, in hopes of securing the boy's return. THE WORLD Sudanese Cabinet's resignation accepted KHARTOUM, Sudan Three weeks after declaring a state of emergency, President Omar el-Bashir said Friday he has accepted his Cabinet's resignation, paving the way for him to consolidate his power in a new Cabinet. In a speech marking Sudan's 44th anniversary of independence, el-Bashir said ministers and state governors had expressed their desire to resign and he had accepted their- 1 resignations.

However, he asked them to stay on as caretakers until he can reform the Cabinet. Russians continue advance on Grozny WASHINGTON U.S. spy satellites detected the launch of three short-range Scud missiles into Chechnya Friday, but the missile attacks were not nuclear and had nothing to do with Y2K computer problems, officials said. "They were routine firings and were detected by monitors. The Russian military has been using Scuds in the war (against Muslim guerrillas) in Chechnya for some time," one U.S.

defense official, who asked not to be identified, told reporters. The older Scud missiles have a range of under 400 miles and, under an agreement with Moscow, details of the detection cf such short- range launches worldwide over the New Year period need not be reported by either, nation to the other. American rescued on Swiss mountain GENEVA A 23-year-old Illinois native has been rescued after being trapped for nearly a week on a Swiss mountain, where he sought shelter under a rock from subzero temperatures and 124 mph wind gusts. Matt Sanders, a native of Sherman, said Friday a warm sleeping bag saved his Me while he was snowbound by one of Europe's worst storms this century. Sanders, who was rescued late Thursday, astounded Alpine experts.

"I have never heard of someone surviving that long in such conditions," Markus Rieder, spokesman for the Valais cantonal (state) police. "It was nearly seven days." numbers for Friday can found hi Section 1 ft FM Indian hijackers release hostages Associated Press KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Waving pistols in the air, five hijackers sped off in waiting cars Friday with two Islamic militants and a Muslim cleric released from Indian jails and were given 10 hours to find freedom ending a tense eight-day standoff All 155 hostages on the Indian Airlines plane were freed unharmed, but the longest hijacking drama in more than a decade highlighted the explosive nature of the long-running dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Under the agreement made between India, the hijackers and the Taliban militia who rule most of Afghanistan, the hijackers agreed to end the eight-day crisis and free the hostages in exchange for the three prominent militants, who were being held in Indian jails. The getaway plan was unclear. The Taliban are anxious to be rid of the hijackers and the most likely destination is the poorly guarded Pakistani border, just a few hours drive from Kandahar.

The hijackers and their three associates sped away at sunset in four-wheel drive vehicles from the Kandahar airport, where they had kept the hostages in an Indian Airlines plane parked on the tarmac. They also had one new hostage a Taliban soldier who was to guarantee their safety. Meanwhile, the freed hostages received a thunderous welcome in New Delhi, with thousands of relatives, airport employees, bystanders, police and journalists applauding and cheering as they landed from Kandahar and emerged one at a time into the terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Joyful relatives hoisted the survivors on their shoulders or tossed them into the air. The plane's crew were carried through the terminal with garlands around their necks.

One old woman hugged her son until she fainted. "We were so terrorized nobody will be able to understand," said Indian businessman RK Ghosh. most of the time they told us: Supporters carry Capt. D. Sharan of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane after he arrived by plane in New Delhi Friday.

Back in Afghanistan, five hijackers dashed off into the sunset in a desperate search for sanctuary after abandoning an Indian Airlines jet and the 155 hostages they held for eight grueling days. Associated Press hoto 'Keep your heads down. If you see us we will shoot While the hijackers dropped several demands during negotiations including the release of 36 militants imprisoned in did win the release of cleric Masood Azhar, a leader of Harkat ul-Ansar, a group on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations. The group is believed to have its training camps in Afghanistan.

The other prisoners released by India were Mushtaq Ahmed Zar- gar, chief commander of the rebel group Ul-Umar Mujahideen, and Ahmad Omar Sayed Sheikh, who was held in a New Delhi prison. The three were flown to Afghanistan and the exchange happened shortly before sunset None of the passengers appeared harmed as the crisis ended, although one Indian passenger was killed shortly after the plane was seized Dec. 24 on a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Delhi. Under the hostage-release deal, the Taliban said Friday afternoon it would not act against the hijackers for 10 hours a grace period that expires before dawn Saturday. But a heavily armed Taliban contingent was following the hijackers, and the only countries they could possibly reach during their 10-hour window of opportuni- ty were Pakistan or Iran, states that have condemned their actions.

"Hijackings are particularly abhorrent to us," said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry. "We have no sympa- thy for such desperate acts." Much remained at stake Friday for the Taliban, who have been ostracized internationally and are now under U.N. sanctions for refusing U.S. demands to hand over Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-born militant accused of bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 If the Taliban act against the hijackers, it could help improve their poor international standing.

But if the hijackers disappear, the Tali- ban's reputation as a host for Islamic extremists will likeiy grow. The names and nationalities of the hijackers remained a mystery, though they carried out their acts in support of Kashmir militants, who want either independence from India or union with Muslim Pakistan. U.S. hands over canal to Panama Associated Press Nations welcome 2000 each in their own way PANAMA CITY, Panama The Panama Canal became Panama's canal on Friday as the United States handed over the strategic waterway it built nearly a century ago. For many Panamanians, it felt like Independence Day.

"The canal is ours. May God bless it," President Mireya Moscoso shouted to cheering thousands gathered in front of the old Canal Commission building. Minutes later, at the stroke of noon, she raised the Panamanian flag as onlookers jumped in joy. "I tell the men, women and children of my country that there will be no more fences, no more signs blocking our entrance. This territory is purs again," Moscoso said, speaking under a heavy rain.

Louis Caldera, secretary of the Army and head of the U.S. delegation, signed the papers formalizing the transfer with little pomp and circumstance. "Panama, our friend, the United States of America salutes you," he said. "May God bless you." In an attempt to avoid demonstrations and Panamanians say to draw attention from a handover unpopular with conservatives in the United States American military officials Thursday quietly lowered the stars and stripes from the canal headquarters, where it had waved since 1914 when the canal was inaugurated The handover was the culmination of a process that started 22 years ago, when military strongman Gen. Omar Torrijos and U.S.

President Jimmy Carter signed the treaties that set the transition period and transfer date of the canal, a marvel of early century engineering, and the surrounding Canal Zone. In Washington, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor refused Friday to block transfer of the canal Judicial Watch, a conservative legal foundation, had applied for a court order that would have temporarily restrained the turnover. Associated Press From East to West and North to South, the world welcomed 2000 in a shimmering tapestry of song and light that rippled around the globe. Along with choreographed spectacle came high drama, reminders Friday in Russia and Asia of the turmoil of the dying century. Woven together by satellite TV, the world's nearly 200 countries, in their 24 time zones, became a jamboree of disparate cultures South Sea islanders singing Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus, Buddhist monks praying for peace in Japan, a German choir singing in a church in Nazareth, Israel, and a huge French-made bell tolling a welcome in Newport, for each time zone entering 2000.

From the harbor in Sydney, Australia, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, fireworks exploded across the world. They lighted up the skies over Rome, where Pope John Paul II gave thanks for humanity's triumphs and asked forgiveness for its sins. "What suffering, what dramatic events!" the frail 79-year-old pontiff said of the 1900s. "But, also, what incredible achievements." By nightfall in New York, crowds were gathering at Times Square, "crossroads of the world," for the biggest, splashiest celebration to greet the new millennium on the American mainland. But even on this most widely celebrated midnight in history, amid the fireworks, prayers and revelry, old hatreds and unscripted events surfaced.

An hour before Tonga and Kiribati in the south Pacific became the first countries to welcome 2000, Boris Yeltsin announced he was resigning the Russian presidency to make way for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. It was a gesture to democracy that would have been unimaginable until the collapse of communism in the last years of the century- As Yeltsin was making his announcement, word came the hijack drama in Afghanistan had ended peacefully after eight days. Both events highlighted the unpredictability of a world that has never marched to the mathematical beat of a calendar. Those who inherit the new century can expect huge strides in medicine to lengthen their lives, and in communications to bring nations closer together. But genetic engineering and the globalization of culture Initial Y2K bite mosquito-sized Associated Press Computers silently switched to 2000 in country after anxious country Saturday, but the dreaded Y2K bug's first bite was barely felt.

Japan reported the failure of a computer linked to radiation monitoring devices at a nuclear plant, but said it wasn't considered serious enough to shut the plant. Experts said many Year 2000 computer troubles still might take days or weeks to develop. Yet there was little if any immediate impact on a computer-dependent world, where engineers and government leaders awaited the event in control bunkers in a state of high alert. The lights stayed on in Asia. Eastern Russia's nuclear plants ran without a hitch.

Planes landed in Malaysia. ATMs in New Zealand handed out money and printed the right account balances. Some small glitches were reported: Ticketing machines on some buses in Australia briefly jammed. A weather forecasting map in France showed the new year as "19100." But as the new year rolled smoothly around the globe, a sense of anti-climax about Y2K spread right along with it. HOME AND OFFICE and commerce is expected to produce ethical dilemmas and conflicts undreamed of a century ago.

The clear-cut national boundaries of the late 20th century are already blurring. Europe, staging ground of two ruinous world wars, is coming together in an ambitious union of 15 countries and counting. But the Balkans, trigger of World War is still a destabilizing zone of ethnic violence 85 years later. As if to illustrate the borderless nature of today's conflicts, a quiet Pakistani enclave of New York woke up on the century's next-to- last day to the spectacle of American law agents swarming through the streets hunting for suspects in an alleged Arab terrorist plot. Starts Jan.

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